For anyone observing Yom Kippur this Saturday, making the immediate transition from quiet prayer on an empty stomach to cheering for the 'Cats in a football stadium full of beer and hamburgers won't be easy. That's why Communication Senior Max Moline is bringing bagels.
"I was sitting around with some friends on Rosh Hashanah and we were talking about Yom Kippur," Moline said, "And we thought it would be a great idea to set up a way to get food before the game so we're not about to pass out once we're there."
Moline's "Break the Fast Tailgate," organized through Northwestern Hillel, will involve tables set up outside of Ryan Field replete with bagels and cream cheese straight from Einstein's. The idea, Moline said, is for people who plan on going to the game directly from Yom Kippur services to be able to grab a quick nosh before the event.
It won't be a traditional tailgate, and not only because the timing of sundown has pushed the event back to a full hour after the opening kickoff.
"There'll be no portable grill, no hatch-back car, no stereo," Moline said. "It's not meant for people to linger — it's just about people being able to get something light on their way into the game." Bagels, according to Moline, are the perfect food to break a Yom Kippur fast; something heavier, like burgers or chicken wings, might be too hard on a stomach that's weak from a full day of fasting.
McCormack Senior Aaron Steinfeld, however, doesn't subscribe to this cautious philosophy. Steinfeld has a unique plan for observing the Jewish holy day without missing out on any tailgating festivities.
"I'm going to start my fast early [on Friday], and hopefully I can start eating at about 4 p.m. [on Saturday]," Steinfeld said. The idea, which he allowed "would probably be frowned upon by most Jews," will be his way of ensuring that he won't go without the classic food and drink of gameday.
"Once I eat, I'll go all out," Steinfeld said. " I'm not going to have a snack...it'll be a full meal — hot dogs, hambgurgers, all that stuff." Steinfeld doesn't have any concerns over the toll all the eating — and drinking, for that matter — could potentially take on his body. "Once I start eating, I'll start drinking. But I definitely won't be drinking to the point where it'll be a problem."
But Moline, who won't be serving any alcohol at his bagels-and-cream-cheese break fast, plans on staying away from the beer come Saturday. "You'd have to be pretty stupid to get drunk on an empty stomach," Moline said. "If you haven't eaten anything in 25 hours, drinking is the last thing you'd want to do."